Friday, June 20, 2014

Does unconventional
shale gas development impact public health? And in Pennsylvania, does anybody in
positions of authority care?

As
I wrote here, $2 million of proposed
funding that would have supported the establishment of a statewide health
registry to track illnesses potentially related to gas drilling was stripped
out of theugly,flawedAct 13prior to its passage in 2012.

Now, StateImpactPa
has reported that two retirees from the Pennsylvania Department of Health
say employees were instructed not to return phone calls from residents who
expressedhealth concerns about
natural gas development.

This is, frankly, a shocking and deeply troubling accusation. It
must be investigated thoroughly. If true, those responsible must be held
accountable.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Will the natgas industry be branded a fool (apologies - I couldn't resist) for using ever more polluting, dangerous, and impactful truck-intensive development practices?Or will it use its enormous intellectual capital to achieve breakthroughs in safety, environmental impact, and public health protection? Those questions are raised by this article in the Pittsburgh's Post-Gazette's excellent Power Source section. It reports on the "dramatic" increase in the use of sand in hydraulic fracturing to boost productivity in the Marcellus play.“You’re seeing wells pumped now with seven, nine, 11 billion pounds of sand,” says the article. That's surely a typo or an error by the individual quoted. The "b" in billion is likely meant to have an "m" as in million - as the article goes on to say 3 paragraphs later that "the Marcellus will require more than 13 billion pounds of frack sand this year, up from 9.6 billion pounds last year. In 2015, that’s expected to increase to nearly 15.8 billion pounds." So, it's likely that Marcellus wells require upwards of 10 million pounds of sand per frack job.That's a lot of sand. Two takeaways from this article.First, the growing use of sand involves a growing number of truck trips per well. That bodes ill for local traffic safety, local air quality, local governments and taxpayers - and for the industry. As the article points out, "there's not enough trucks out there" to meet the sand demand.Second, the industry continues to be resourceful in getting more gas out of every well. Indeed, according to the US Energy Information Administration, a Marcellus Shale well completed by a rig
in April 2014 can be expected to yield over 6 Mcfg per day more than a well completed by
that rig in that formation in 2007. That's a testament to not only the profit motive but some really smart folks in the industry. Which gives me hope that - if properly regulated and incented - the industry can dramatically reduce it's environmental and public health risks and impacts.

All of this development is occurring on state forest land, where - generally speaking - higher environmental protection standards are practiced compared to privately-owned lands. But even subject to these higher standards and under the best management, any way you slice it, natgas development is a heavy, invasive, and disruptive industrial process. Indeed, it turns forests blocks into industrial parks. Impacts are inevitable, and not nearly fully understood. It's clear, though, that these impacts are already very significant in these early days of Pennsylvania's shale gas era, and cumulatively troubling. Now, to be sure, some of those disturbances will be reclaimed. Eventually.Which is part of the problem. How long will these awful wounds to forests stay open? When will reclamation of well sites and right-of-way occur? Some partial reclamation has occurred in PA. But will those wounds be reopened as wells are refracked to maintain production? That appears likely, even if nobody's talking about it. The US Energy Information Administration says that the average shale gas well will be refracked every five years. Other sources suggest it could happen every one to two years, or at least several times per well - and may require more water each time. Does refracking happen only where it's profitable - which appears to be just about everywhere? Refracking is apparently already occurring in PA, but I haven't been able to discern that from state data, because it apparently doesn't require a separate permit to refrack a well.When will the wounds of shale gas development be healed? We can't answer that question until we talk about refracking. And that requires much more transparency - from both the industry and state government - as well as better regulation, and much more careful work by the shale gas industry.

A Green thing

The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a Green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all Ridicule and Deformity...and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the Man of Imagination, Nature is Imagination itself.

William Blake, English poet (1757-1827)

About Me

John is Director of the Center for Environment, Energy, and Economy and Lecturer in Sustainability at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. He is a former Senior Fellow and current Advisory Board member at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, and a consultant. He served as Secretary of the PA Department of Environmental Protection from Jan. 2015-May 2016, and as Secretary of the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources from April 2009-Jan. 2011. He is the only person in PA's history to serve as Secretary of both of the state's natural resource agencies. He also served as a two term Mayor of Hazleton, PA, and as an Alternate Federal Commissioner on the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin.
John is a graduate of Bloomsburg University with a degree in economics, and holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Lehigh University.